Luke 18:9-14 "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:" Jesus is addressing this parable to people with two problems which usually go together. The first is the idea of having a righteousness of one's own. It is a quality which we as members of a fallen race have no possibility of obtaining. The only righteousness which we are capable of is that which is by faith in the sacrifice which Jesus made at the cross. The other problem is looking down on someone else who we feel just hasn't made the grade like we have. For examples, Jesus uses members of two opposite extremes, the Pharisee, who if anyone was righteous, he would be; and a tax collector, one who was basically hated by everyone. To a person living in that period of time the first thought would likely be that the Pharisee is righteous, almost by definition, and the tax collector, well he doesn't even make the lineup. Even though the Pharisee went through all the proper righteous moves, Jesus sees him from a different perspective. Just like God said to Samuel when David was anointed as king, "Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." It's our attitudes and motives that are being called into question. The tax collector really had a better handle on what the "score" was. He had no righteousness of his own and he knew it. He also knew who to call on for the mercy he needed. It was the tax collector that left with the answer he had been seeking - mercy. I doubt it if the Pharisee even was aware that he had totally missed it.

A Time to Groom Our Attitudes